EDDIE Murphy isn't my cup of comedic tea...or so I thought. Protesting I don't find him funny in the slightest, I settled down to Beverly Hills Cop (1984).

He plays talented but reckless Detroit police officer Axel Foley set on revenge for the shooting of childhood chum Michael Tandino. His investigations lead him to Beverly Hills and more specifically, to corrupt art dealer Victor Maitland.

This box set had sat unopened on my DVD shelf since last Christmas and it was a choice between watching it or listening to my boyfriend shoot more Russians on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the Playstation (it's driving me mad already).

If you take a look at his back catalogue on the Internet Movie Database you'll quickly see just how instrumental Armando Ianucci has been in shaping British comedy. For the past 15 years he has been one of the creative geniuses behind the likes of Brass Eye, The Day Today and even Alan Partridge.

But one of his greatest creations has been The Thick of It which is a spoof fly-on-the wall insight into the working of government departments. What you say, doesn't sound very funny? You're wrong. Very wrong.

It's hilarious.

Finally got around to going where no man has gone before ... ok thousands had been before me because the film's been out for weeks - Star Trek.

I wasn't expecting much. There's been far too much Trekkie hype - and that lot scare me.
But after two hours seven minutes - you know it wasn't so bad.

I have a confession to make (which is kind of apt for a couple of films about Catholicism). No matter how unfashionable it is to say it, I kinda liked The Da Vinci Code movie.

Yes, I know, it was over-hyped to the hilt, but it was good fun.

Film of the year so far is Gran Torino.

Clint Eastwood's latest directorial outing is, as you would expect from one of the masters of the silver screen, brilliant.

IT'S called Frost/Nixon but it may as well be called David/Goliath.

It's the 1970s and up-and-coming TV talk show host and playboy David Frost (Michael Sheen) decides to boost his career by interviewing disgraced former American President Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langella), vowing to get an apology for the cover-up over Watergate.

SLUMDOG Millionaire is based on the book 'Q & A' by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.

The film, directed by Danny Boyle, who is best known for Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, is set in India and tells the story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on the game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

He arouses suspicions from the authorities and the beginning of the film opens up on a rather grizzly scene of Jamal being questioned and tortured by police officers, who want to know how he knows all the answers.

Kate Winslet has won two awards at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles, winning best actress for Revolutionary Road and best supporting actress for The Reader.

The Globes - which recognise both film and television - are often regarded as an indicator of the movies and actors who will go on to win honours at the Academy Awards.

Winslet had been expected to be named best supporting actress for The Reader, in which she plays a former Nazi prison guard who has an affair with a teenager.

The Reader is out now.

Just a quick line to say what a great film Castaway is!

I've seen it millions of times but it was on BBC1 last night and I couldn't help watching it again!

Tom Hanks plays Chuck Nolan and is superb - I love how efficient he is - trying to stay alive so he can get home to Helen Hunt.

THERE'S something for everyone with this week's new releases.

In chick-flick Bride Wars, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway battle it out and guarantee to put any man off marriage for life, while American Pie's Seann William Scott stars as one half of a truly terrible pair of Role Models in a film that's one for the boys.

Also showing is Defiance, starring Daniel Craig as one of four brother's fleeing the Nazi's in World War 2 and feelgood movie, Slumdog Millionaire, which charts a young man's life from rags to (almost) riches...